Recently i was invited to a hair cutting ceremony (upshern/chalaka). I was really happy to see the event, and would have been happy to share in the celebration, but the day I saw the Facebook event was a day after the event. This is not the only time this has happened to me. A friend gave birth and organized a brit, and shared the event only on Facebook. Given the constellation of what was happening at the time, I had not checked Facebook or spoken to said friend and completely missed out on the happy events. I was able to make a meal for them, and the baby clearly did not miss us. However, it would have been nice to share in the simcha. It lead me to think about the question of when making a celebration, where should you share it?
Sharing Electronically
It is becoming more and more common to share celebrations like Bar/Bat mitzvah, upshern, simchat bat, and sheva brachot electronically. That is celebrations which are not weddings are often celebrated electronically. Facebook is certainly an easy way to do it. However, it does lead to the question- should Facebook be the sole method of sharing a simcha? These days, many people are cutting back on their Facebook use for a variety of reasons. They may not even be on Facebook anymore. There are many ways to reach your friends and family digitally:
So where should you share your celebration?
If you choose to use digital methods, its a good idea to use more than one. Email is still a good fallback. If you haven’t heard from someone that you’d really like to join you in your simcha, make sure to follow up with them in some other way. For larger celebrations, it may still be better to print your invitations. We do make invitations for families who request this service when ordering Bnei Akiva benchers. In theory we could provide designs for e-invites as well.
What do you think? Where should you share?
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